


Partners

by FelixPhial



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Animal Traits, Cleaning up a friend after their brutal gang rape, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Law enforcement officer experiences rape and subsequent reporting, Minor Injuries, Rape Aftermath, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28890969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelixPhial/pseuds/FelixPhial
Summary: When a police call turns violent, Daisy comes to Basira's rescue.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, OMCs/Basira Hussain
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Bulletproof 20/21





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

  * For [within_a_dream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/within_a_dream/gifts).



It should have been a normal call. Technically, Daisy supposed, it _had_ been a normal call, in the sense that no one currently mulling around the flaming warehouse had had to sign another goddamned Section 31. But Section 31 or not, there was nothing normal about listening to a fellow officer gurgle out his last breaths over the radio, much less listening to the entirety of one’s partner’s violent gang rape afterward. 

“And that’s when the place exploded,” Basira was saying. She winced as the paramedic stitched the cut over her eyebrow shut, but she didn’t let it distract her from making her statement to Sergeant Oldman. “Daisy and I were running out when it happened. Not sure what caused it, but it looked like they were running a whole illegal arms trade in there. Bombs and the like, I think."

Daisy spoke up, “I'd only managed to cuff three of them when the other three decided to take me, and a fire started during the commotion. I didn't see the cause either, but like Basira said, it was a chemical factory in there. At any rate, I wanted to keep trying to subdue the other three bastards, but Basira convinced me to leave them and run for it. Lucky I listened to her, too, or our remains would still be in there with the rest.”

“Very lucky indeed,” Oldman said. “Well it seems pretty straightforward. I've got no other questions just now. I'll put out alerts for the three you described, but if they really are connected to the Desmonds, I doubt we'll have much luck catching them. You ought to get to hospital, Hussain.”

“Do I really look that bad?” Basira grimaced.

“Worse,” Oldman said. “But that’s not the only reason I want you seen. Tonner?”

“Right,” Daisy said briskly. “Let’s go, Basira.”

Oldman nodded his goodbye and went to speak to the fire chief. Daisy helped Basira limp to her car and climb into the passenger seat, closing the door for her.

“I don’t really need a doctor,” Basira said as Daisy opened the other door.

“It’s not about that.” Daisy sank into the driver’s seat and shutting her own door.

“Then what?”

“Oldman wants your injuries documented, in case.”

“In case what?”

“In case of an inquest. Or worse.”

“Ah. Right. If they figure out we started the fire—”

“They won’t,” Daisy promised. “They won’t want to. Oldman will take care of everything to back up our story. We might have to sign another Section 31, but they won’t find out. Oldman has always had my back when it comes to shit like this. They'll never find out.”

“But if they do,” Basira persisted, “it will look a lot better for us if we can prove they really raped and beat me. I get it.”

“Basically,” Daisy said. "Sorry, Basira."

“It’s fine,” Basira said. “I don’t want you in any trouble.”

 _‘If there’s an inquest, I’m in trouble regardless,’_ Daisy thought as she started the car, but she kept her mouth shut.

They drove in silence to the hospital—not the nearest one, not even the second-nearest, but the one Daisy herself would go to if she ever absolutely had to have her own rape injuries documented or treated. Her stomach clenched harder with each block, remembering every horrible moment that had played out over the radio by her ear. She knew, logically, that Irving landing on his radio’s transmit button could only have been a coincidence… but she couldn’t help feeling like some sadistic cosmic voyeur had intentionally inflicted it on her. 

It had sounded like any other typical mental health issue, at least from how dispatch had described it. Daisy kept going back to the call, poring over every word in her mind, trying to suss out what she’d missed so she could make sure she never missed it again. But she could think of nothing. There was no detail that stood out to her as a red flag she’d missed. It had sounded so completely routine. She would never have let Basira go without her if she’d had any whiff of real danger. When she’d set out to grab a vampire from another precinct, she’d truly thought Basira and Irving would have the easier job that night.

Daisy shifted gears, just like she’d been doing when Basira had radioed for backup. That shaken note in Basira’s voice had been enough to make Daisy put on her lights and pull a 180 across the median. The grim reality had sunk in before she’d made it fully into her new lane: no one but a Sectioned officer would answer Basira when she called for backup on a “weird” situation. And Daisy, on the other side of London, had been the nearest available Sectioned officer.

She scowled and turned on her wipers as the rain suddenly beat down. How many of those cowards had switched bands or turned off their radios? How many had turned down the volume, making Basira’s pleas and de-escalation attempts just background noise? Or worse still, how many of those perverts had surreptitiously rubbed their cocks through their trousers while the rapists had dirty-talked Basira, or while she’d begged them to at least use condoms, or while she’d screamed in pain—

Daisy only realized how tightly she was gripping the gearshift when Basira placed her hand over Daisy’s white knuckles. Daisy’s police anorak was too long for Basira’s arms, and the silky rustle of nylon plus the soft warmth of Basira’s fingers sent a pleasurable chill through Daisy. She forced herself to relax. She didn’t want to stress Basira more.

Basira’s hand left Daisy’s, but only to turn on the radio. The Archers—Daisy glanced at her clock in surprise. How could it only be ten past seven? It felt like midnight. Basira rubbed Daisy’s hand again, easing the muscles until her fingers relaxed and then intertwining their fingers. Her hand felt like it always did, and her scent was familiar, comforting, even underneath the stomach-twisting stench of seven layers of rapist pheromones.

When they reached the hospital, Daisy realized she hadn't heard a word of The Archers. She hadn't even realized it had been over for ten minutes. The passage of time inverted the second they walked through the hospital doors, though. One minute felt like ten, and four hours felt like a month. Daisy was a prowling, growling tiger every minute of those four hours—sometimes almost literally, while they waited in an empty room for a special nurse to drive through the storm. But even when she was at rest, holding Basira's hand, standing as still and silent as a cat waiting to pounce, Daisy was still pacing inside.

She was still pacing internally as she drove Basira home afterward. After her forensic exam, a hasty shower, and a change into donated clothing, Basira smelled entirely different. Daisy could still smell her rapists on her skin, only now she also smelled like strange soaps, strange clothes, strange people, strange disinfectants. None of them (besides the rapists) were bad smells on their own, but the combination was overwhelming. Plus, as far as Daisy was concerned, everyone smelled repulsive compared to Basira.

"Hey," Basira said. "I said, 'are you coming up?'"

Daisy looked up, startled. She'd not only driven to Basira's flat with barely any awareness of doing so, but she'd found a space, parked, and turned the car off without knowing what she was doing.

"I think I'd better," she said.

Was she imagining it, or did Basira look pleased?

Basira, tired as she must be, easily outpaced Daisy up the steps. Daisy was too busy scowling at the bushes and scanning the trees for danger to rush ahead of her. She glared at the car park one last time before shutting and bolting Basira's door. Then it was on to the rest of the flat. She checked every closet and corner, leaving no coat unsmacked and no curtain unshook.

"Maybe you ought to check under the sink," Basira said dryly, running a bath for herself. "Might be a burglar under the towels."

"It's not funny, Basira," Daisy snapped. "They could come back to finish the job."

"I'd love to see them try," Basira said. "I reckon you'd rip them in half before they got through the window."

"I _would,"_ Daisy said through clenched teeth. "I would tear the veins out of their neck with my bare hands. I dare them to to try something. No, I _want_ they try something. I want an excuse to rip their lungs from their chests and shove them up each others' arses, I want to eat their hearts—"

"So, I like the plan in general, but I think the logistics might need tweaking," Basira said. "Heart-eating, sure, you could probably get away with that in self-defense, but you might have a hard time explaining the lung bit in an inquest."

Daisy just growled. Basira shot her a withering look, and Daisy's throat cut itself off abruptly. She hung her head like a shamed Rottweiler.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not angry at you."

"I know," Basira said. "And I'm sorry I stopped you hunting them down. I know it was hard for you to let them go."

"You would have died if I hadn't," Daisy said.

"So would you."

Daisy shrugged. Basira stripped off her borrowed clothing and stepped into her tub.

"Daisy?"

Daisy's head shot up, the animal part of her eager to obey Basira's every command.

"Make me a drink?"

Daisy scrambled to do so. Basira's bar wasn't as well-stocked as usual, but Daisy managed to muddle up a decent Gin Old-Fashioned. She brought it to Basira and held it out to her, waiting patiently for her to get to a pausing point in her book and take it.

Basira finally reached out for the glass. She took a sip, said, "It's good, thanks," and went back to her book without acknowledging Daisy further.

"I'll patrol," Daisy said.

Basira snorted. "Around my flat? How would that work, exactly? Do you stand in the middle and spin around?"

"I could clean, then."

"Are you saying my flat is dirty?"

Daisy narrowly avoided growling again. "Basira, you don't understand!"

"No, I think I do." Basira marked her place in her book and set it aside. "You want to be out there hunting down my rapists, but you also want to be keeping an eye on me. So you've got all this energy building up inside you while you're forced to be idle. Sound about right?"

"I need to stop them!" Daisy burst out. "They'll rape and murder again if I don't—maybe you, maybe not, but _someone._ I've got to stop them."

"Yeah, I reckon you do," Basira agreed. "But the trail won't go cold while I nap."

"What?"

"I'm coming with you," Basira said. "You think I don't want to stop them from raping and murdering too? I just need a nap first, is all."

"It's not a good idea, Basira," Daisy said. "You've never been on a Hunt."

"Sure I have," she said. "I like tracking down the bad guys just as much as you. Well, all right, maybe not _quite_ as much as you, but I enjoy it a lot. And I know you maybe get a bit, er, carried away in the name of justice. So I'll go with you. We can track them down together, then I'll make sure they're really my rapists, and you can do... whatever it is you do. And if there's ever an inquest, I'll say you were at my flat all night."

"You shouldn't risk your career for me," Daisy said.

"You'd do it for me," Basira pointed out. "In fact, you already did once tonight. 'We've got to have each others' backs, always'—isn't that what you said to me when you took me under your wing?"

Daisy's lips itched to smile for the first time that night. "It is."

"Then give me two hours," Basira said. "I'll be good as new, and we can go track down those bastards together. All right, partner?"

"All right," Daisy agreed.

"In the meantime, could you wash my hair?" Basira asked. "I'm sore, and your fingers are magic."

Daisy grinned and knelt by the tub as quick as she could. "I get that a lot."

"Shut up."

Daisy inhaled the familiar scent of Basira's shampoo as she lathered it in her fingers and then in Basira's thick hair. The world was turning right-side up again, finally. Basira was acting and smelling like herself. Daisy would be on The Hunt again soon, and with Basira by her side, no less. And, as she emerged streaming warm water from her now-clean hair, Basira raised herself a little higher than before to kiss Daisy and stroke the sensitive part of her cheek.

"Thanks again for watching out for me," Basira said. "I know you weren't close, and you saw how long it took anyone else to get there. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't had my back. Thank you."

"Of course," Daisy said simply, even as her whole body warmed as if she were in the bath with Basira. "We're partners."


End file.
